Zumba prostitution case is not a minor crime

Should prostitution be considered a crime with equal severity to a speeding ticket?

You can’t spread disease by speeding. You aren’t likely to break up your marriage or enrich a pimp who exercises total control over his workers or even enable the drug habit of someone so desperate he or she has to work for sex. And you aren’t going to inadvertently aid the sex-slavery trade by going a few miles per hour over the limit.

Alexis Wright is accused of 109 counts of prostitution.

Add to this the fact that speeding, except in the most egregious cases, reveals you as someone who engages in behavior shared widely by many otherwise decent people who often have to go a bit faster than posted limits just to keep up with traffic. Buying a prostitute, on the other hand, reveals you as someone with an ethic that says it’s OK to pay money with the expectation of being able to use someone else’s body for your own gratification.

So when I read about people in Kennebunk, Maine arguing that it isn’t really that big of a deal for someone to buy a prostitute, and that the names of these customers should be kept quiet, I get a little confused. (Read accounts of this here and here.)

That sounds exactly like something a man would say if he was caught with one of these working women and he didn’t want the embarrassment and loss of reputation that would come from being found out. Too bad. Buying a prostitute is a disgusting crime.

The Kennebunk case involves a Zumba instructor accused of prostitution, and her client list, which is the source of great speculation in a small town. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is expected to rule soon on whether the list should be made public.

A lot of cities publicize the names of suspected johns as a deterrent. Shame can be a powerful weapon, they believe.

This isn’t a novel approach. A judge once ordered a gang member to send me a letter to the editor explaining how sorry he was for his crimes. I didn’t publish it because I wasn’t convinced of its sincerity.

Years ago a judge in Wilkesboro, N.C., ordered a woman who had killed someone in a drunken-driving accident to perform a monthly humiliation ritual. She had to parade around the courthouse for an hour at a time with a sign reading, “I am a convicted drunk driver, and as a result I took a life.”

More than decade ago, a judge in St. George, Utah ordered a 22-year-old man to post a sign outside his house announcing he was a convicted drug dealer. This was added onto a sentence of 36 months probation. His parents were so embarrassed by the sign that they kicked him out of their house.

Shame has some effect. But in Kennebunk, lawyers for some of the Zumba prostitution clients are arguing for keeping the list secret. Some people worry the real victims of this shaming technique will be wives and children, who will be ostracized, teased or otherwise mistreated.

Even those whose names are on the list could see their businesses suffer for committing what the community considers a minor infraction.

I will admit that the shaming technique in Kennebunk has some drawbacks. For one, the names on the list have not been convicted of anything. It is conceivable a name might be there in error. But on the other hand, rumors have spread around town about certain names believed to be on the list. If the names are kept secret, innocent people may remain under suspicion by their neighbors.

Perhaps most importantly, police in Kennebunk routinely publish names in cases such as this. They shouldn’t make exceptions now because the case has gotten a lot of attention and some prominent names may be exposed.

It’s easy to dismiss the hubbub as another case of puritanical Americans being fixated with sex. No doubt, there is something to that.

But it’s also true that society seems to feels this is a bigger crime than speeding. Maybe the law is out of whack, and buying a prostitute should carry a bigger penalty.

About the Author

Jay Evensen

Jay Evensen is the Senior Editorial Columnist for the Deseret News. He has 32 years of journalism experience covering politics and a variety of other assignments at news organizations ranging from United Press International in New York City to the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Deseret News, where he has worked since 1986. During that time, he has won numerous local, regional and national awards. Most recently, he was given the Cameron Duncan Media Award, given annually in Washington, D.C., by the advocacy group RESULTS, to the journalist judged to have done the most to further the cause of the world's poorest people.

31 comments

On the other hand, prostitution has never caused a multi-car crash that killed several people who weren’t speeding.

We’ve been half-heartedly trying to stamp out prostitution since humans had hormones. We’ve been even less successful than we have in our “war on drugs.”

Maybe the better policy would be to really focus on the behavior that is coercive and leave the voluntary alone. Use of force to coerce or control a prostitute gets treated like the horrendous crime that it is; choosing to be a prostitute, and visiting a voluntary prostitute, get treated like any other personal behavior–the community can disapprove and ostracize if it desires, but the police go about more important business.

Of course this article is written by a male… Can we stop playing the high morality card and actually talk about real solutions? Locking women up for prostitution will never stop people from doing it. Prostitution has been around since the dawn of civilization, do you really think ruining a woman’s life with a criminal record will stop sex trade? A better solution, would be to regulate the industry. Create proper licensing to sex workers that involves auditing and drug testing -this will prevent drug abuse and will also stop human trafficking dead in it’s tracks. Pretending that sex trade will simply disappear is extremely naive. Government has no place in legislating a woman’s body and what people do in private.

First you said that we need regulation on sex then at the end of your comment you assert that government has no part to interfer in people lives !?- please go home and think clear about what you said, you contradict yourself

Nice play of the morality card there Mr. Evensen. One simple question for you, are you completely innocent. Have you never done anything that is illegal? If you answered yes then you are no better than the people you are attacking. You sir are a liar. The attempt to stamp out prostitution like the war on drugs is a failure in all sense of the word. Quite frankly I am over this attack on other peoples morals when people such as yourself really need to look in the mirror. As I was taught many years ago, when you point fingers at others you will always have three pointing back at yourself. You like some many others in this country, are hypocrites. You feel you have the right to judge others without looking inside yourself. As a recovering addict, I find this more than a little distasteful. People like you leave a rancid taste whenever you start spouting your overly moralistic views for the one reason mentioned above, you refuse to actually look at yourself. Prostitution is not going anywhere it is time to stop wasting money on it, and for the overly moral hypocrites to mind their own business.

I agree that efforts to block a court releasing the names of the suspected Johns are motivated by embarrassment. However, your characterization of prostitution is misguided and, as “Woman” points out above, clearly a product of your male-genderd world-view. In an effort to be gallant on the issue (“buying a prostitute is a disgusting crime”) you reveal a perspective that is aligned with objectifying women. Sex-work is generally a fee-for-service industry, not an exchange of money for property. Johns (who can also be women) rent the prostitutes time and sexual services; they do not buy their bodies. Many sex-workers enter the industry of their own free-will and enjoy their work. I would recommend that you watch Live Nude Girls Unite (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264802/) about collective bargaining rights of sex-workers, read a book on the sociology of prostitution (books.google.com/books?isbn=184787066X), and visit the Sex Workers Project website (http://www.sexworkersproject.org) to educate yourself with the views and issues from inside the trade.

Holy cow! Reading this conjured up images of a puritanical mob with torches and pitchforks. Jay certainly has a very self righteous gift of spin. I was waiting for him to call for a return to dunking, or stocks in the square, or even burning at the stakes. Between his colorful portrayal of call girls as the root cause of human slavery and human suffering; and his ludicrous assertion that some speeders are merely victims forced by peer pressure; I don’t know whether to pity the author’s narrow, and overtly judgemental opinion, or ridicule it.

As it turns out, I spent several years as a reporter assigned to cover prostitution in Nevada for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. I venture to say I know more about the industry than anyone posting here. I also have made several trips to Washington to meet with State Department officials and discuss the illegal sex trade and how prostitution often is a cover for human trafficking. Prostitution is indeed ugly and disgusting. As for the comment about my being a man, that is so insulting it is hardly worth acknowledging. However, prostitution is indeed a man’s business, and they tend to the ones enriched by it. Their supporters are useful idiots. I’m not surprised by the naivete of the comments here, but they are disturbing. A moral issue? Would you also say that we should decriminalize theft and other crimes that are as old as the planet because we can’t ever do away with them? Prostitution causes harm. It is closely allied with violence, drugs, slavery and the disintegration of families. The legalization of it only provides cover for the worst atrocities. I am not naive on the subject.

I’m glad to see that your view and moral compass didn’t flip 180 degrees when crossing a imaginary line. However similar atrocities were associated with Alcohol. Thus the introduction of Prohibition in 1920. That resulted in atrocities of a far greater magnitude. So I wonder if the atrocities you witnessed exacerbated because of it’s illegal status and not in spite of.

No, you cannot spread disease by speeding. But according to the NHTSA, speed is a factor in one third of fatal accidents (not to mention non-fatal accidents causing injury). I’d say that qualifies as a major health concern.

As for the rest of the ills surrounding prostitution, that is what happens with morality laws. When you outlaw an activity, it drives it underground to be run by criminals, so it’s no surprise that it becomes associated with criminal activity in other forms.

Terrible comparison. You really need to do some research into the actual impact of speeding. I used to be a cop and I can tell you firsthand that speeders are incredibly more dangerous to society but they are also a lot more costly. tens of thousands of lives have been lost and billions of dollars in property damage has been done where the root cause was a speeder. Every year thousands and thousands of children are killed named or injured by speeders. in my opinion the laws against speeders aren’t tough enough. Maybe after you’ve had to scrape a dead child’s body off of the road who was hit by a speeder your opinion on speeding might change too. Prostitution is like prostitution don’t compare it to anything else because there is simply nothing else like it.

Legal prostitution creates a demand that was not there when it was illegal. The economics of prostitution is that a woman, even a prostitute, is not going to want to do tricks for as low as a price as a typical john wants to pay. Who does cheap tricks? Coerced prostitutes, i.e. slaves. Europe has lots of legal prostitution and they have lots of sex slaves — poor women who are lured with promises of modeling jobs or good jobs in the West who are kidnapped and taken to brothels to do tricks for the cheapskate johns. We can’t get rid of slavery. It has been around for thousands of years. Even so, we never give in to the evil because as long as we stand up to evil it says something to us about our common humanity.

Are criminals names printed in the paper to protect the community or to shame the family? Would you want your father’s name printed in the paper? Who does the most damage to the family,the press or the jon? I suggest……do the least amount of harm to the family.

I think we are attacking this from the wrong angle. Whom, almost universally, do we find as “volunteer sex slaves” Women from poverty and desperation. Often times they feel they have no other “skill”. Education is the key, rather than simply imprison them, we should teach them skills that would make them productive members of society.

The best way to rid ourselves of drugs, prostitution, abortion and crime is to attack the demand, not the supply. Education is the single best weapon we have. If the government spent half the money on programs to help and educate those stuck in these traps I feel the problems would largely deal with themselves. Rather we take these beings off the streets, imprison them, release them and act surprised when they return to their previous lifestyle.

I think we are looking at this in a much wider spectrum than we should. Sex for money, straight up is no different than paying the woman who comes to my home twice a week and cleans. I pay her for her services. Same as the gardener. There is no reason a person can not have the same business relation with a licensed sex provider. Ever get a massage? You can get one to come to your home where I live. A sex industry can be regulated, taxed and controlled within laws. Would it be abused? Probably and those persons should be prosecuted. Let us be clear, There are many aspects of a “sexual conduct” which should remain illegal, ie slavery, drugs, etc. Obviously, anything which requires a person to do something against their will should be illegal. However, sex as a business? Can work.

“Would you also say that we should decriminalize theft and other crimes that are as old as the planet because we can’t ever do away with them? ”

No Jay, because theft is a violation of property rights. Prostitution between two consenting adults is a victimless crime. True, you can argue that the family members of the John are the victims, but that would also be the case for anyone committing adultery.

“It is closely allied with violence, drugs, slavery and the disintegration of families.”

Correct Jay, because of the ILLEGALITY of prostitution. Much like the prohibition of alcohol was closely allied with those things, by outlawing a high demand product, all you are doing is driving it underground. You want to reduce the crime and violence associated with prostitution? Legalize and regulate it. This whole pious, self-righteous “GRRRRR PROSTITUTION IS BAD” B.S. accomplishes nothing.

Anthony, you’re naive on several counts here. Prostitution is hardly a victimless crime. It is associated with a host of ills. Making the comparison with adultery is a logical non sequitur. Just because adultery causes misery we should overlook the pain caused by prostitution? Also, legalizing alcohol did not do away with the violence, misery and health problems rampant with alcohol abuse. It merely did away with the organized crime element involved with its distribution. Having seen the legal prostitution industry first-hand, I can tell you it doesn’t solve the problems associated with the practice, nor does it do away with the underground version of it.
And I’m sorry, calling me self-righteous and pious is not an argument. It’s a crutch that substitutes for critical thinking about an extremely important topic. If you’re just trying to make me feel bad, you’ve failed, I’m afraid.

The human trafficking argument is invalid, that system arises as a result of unregulated prostitution. Just like alchohol, drugs, or prize-fighting.

A Crime is an unwarranted hostile action that injures a specific individual and/or deprives them of liberty or property. Buying sex may be disgusting, it may be morally wrong, but a crime it is not.

What is really disgusting to me are the bedroom police, interfering with the pursuit of happiness in the realm of a citizen’s private life. Since there is no loss of property or injury, enforcement requires peeking through windows and eavesdropping to determine whether the so-called “crime” even occurred.

The funny thing is that these moral hygenists have been scratching their heads here in America for centurys, Societies for Temperance and the Supression of Vice etc. The only thing they have accomplished is to drive those industries into the darkness and away from the light of law.

Oddly, if my home were buglarized, the local police will not dust for fingerprints (insufficient resources), if I call 911 the city police can take up to 30 minutes to arrive, but the local Drug Squad can afford infrared cameras mounted on HELICOPTERS. In the State of California thousands of rape kits go untested for a lack of financial resources, the cost of ONE helicopter could pay for the testing of all rape kits. You know why we do this ? Because America has been brainwashed into believing that getting high is worse than rape or robbery, if that isn’t true, then why is our tax money saying different ? MATT 6:21: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

So keep on busting the High/Low level Suppliers/Users and I’ll set back and watch y’all keep chasing your tails till you run us out of money. One thing that is pretty much universal with prohibitionists is an ignorance of the history of prohibition.

Trivia Fact: In the past 5 Years, Mexico’s War On Drugs has resulted in a death toll that, by population proportion, is roughly equivalent to the number of Americans killed in World War I (Is anybody’s conscience tingling yet ?). Oddly, for the hundred years or so that we have been importing marijuana and other drugs from Mexico, demand keeps rising every year, same thing for prostitution. How many Mexicans should die to fix our problem ?

The only concrete accomplishment in the War on Drugs has been to drive the stimulant market toward methamphetamine as a more affordable and easier to manufacture alternative to cocaine (meth labs are now starting to pop up here in Pennsylvania via non-biker-gang networks), to drive the hallucinogen market away from plant based drugs and LSD toward newer (and more dangerous) synthetic drugs (ecstacy, GBH, “Bath Salts”) and to drive the opium market toward heroin and pharmaceutical opiates (while pulling doctors and druggists into the “fight”). The only concrete accomplishment in the War On Prostitution has been to drive the market away from “homegrown” operations, toward more organized suppliers from Asia and Eastern Europe who import non-educated/non english speaking women into truely exploitative and coercive “sex slavery” in bars, strip clubs, and massage parlours.

Like it or not, a pimp or a capo are the only people that someone involved in the sex or drug trade can turn to for security, it will be this way until we afford the vice market (as distasteful as it may be) equal protection under the law. An industry can only be regulated if it is legal.

You might think paying for sex is disgusting, how about coming home from church and sitting down in front of the TV with the family to watch men cause one another permanent brain injury through violence, while giving your 16 year old son tips on how he can do the same thing next Friday night ? Maybe next Friday night you will sit down with your son and smoke a joint with him, or maybe split a 12-pack, or better yet, just hit him on the head with a medium-sized rubber mallet; about 6-12 blows of varying force over the course of 2 hours, 3 or 4 times a week. If you have the time, take a gander at the suicide statistics for NFL players and compare it to those of prostitutes. Hey, maybe you could convince your local high school to start a mixed martial arts team, your child could get a MMA scholarship to a great college and one day go on to the UFC.

You might not drink, smoke, use drugs, or pay for sex, good for you. Your life will most certainly be better for it. But if you use an I-Pad, fill your car with gas, buy a diamond ring for your sweetheart, or watch contact sports, don’t preach about the “human cost” of the vice trade; your money is already enslaving, poisoning, maiming, and killing people.

I have to admit that I do agree with the sentiment that if you are going to allow adults to cause each other great physical harm solely for entertainment value, and not just condone it, but actually greatly reward them for it… then it’s pretty hard as a society to tell a woman she can’t charge a person to have sex with her.

If it is illegal for a woman to sell sex, it should be illegal for the man to buy it. If she is prosecuted, her clients should be prosecuted as well. It does take two to tango. In fact, it should not be legally permitted to prosecute her and not them.

Yes Michael, “In fact, it should not be legally permitted to prosecute her and not them.” Might I add that it is legally permissible for the authorities to do this (in the same way drug dealers will get arrested while the drug buyers will have lower priority)but it is still not the moral thing to do. I believe too often the idea of ‘legal’ gets confused with the idea of ‘right’. In the past we have seen Jim Crow Laws and Nuremberg Laws and nobody will argue that being legal makes it right. Now we have Drug Laws and the argument goes ‘it’s wrong because it’s illegal’. It’s illegal not for the reasons given, but to protect those (both monetarily and ideologically)who enrich themselves by keeping it on the books. Hemp (the inert, won’t get you high type)is illegal by effort of Hearst Publishing to protect it’s timber sources from competition. Hemp makes excellent cheap paper. The early pot laws were written as a means to prosecute black jazz musicians, mainly because powerful white men were nervous when they saw white women drawn to it. LSD got a bad rap because it opened people’s minds and allowed people to think for themselves, protest Vietnam or quit their day jobs. Sorry, there is no staring at the sun or chromosomal damage from the effects.
Remember, liberty means freedom to choose that which is free from affecting the rights of others.

I hear you Jay Evensen: ” legalizing alcohol did not do away with the violence, misery and health problems rampant with alcohol abuse. It merely did away with the organized crime element involved with its distribution.”
Merely??? I think everyone knows that it was the ‘organized crime element’ (causing unprecedented violence and rampant political/judicial corruption, in case you are unaware) which made the law such a stupid idea.
Your judgement is truly suspect. Motor vehicle fatalities happen as much at the hands of fate (blameless accidents)then because some law was broken like speeding or DUI. Cars also pollute (making us sick) and are the source for our troubles in the Mid East (the U.S. supporting Saudi Arabia which, in effect, enslaves women and executes those who would freely express themselves.

Now, you want to outlaw cars? I wish you would. I’d join you, but I’m afraid that train has left the station. Much like your arguments against prostitution.

Lastly, I seem to have no problem finding beautiful women to date. That is unless I’m broke and would need them to pay for the evening’s entertainment. Then I stay home alone and start counting my pennies again. No grudges from me. What’s your grudge against women? What’s wrong with them expecting the man to pay? After all, they are very much worth everything a man has spent a lifetime working for, even for a ‘mere’ minute of their beautiful companionship.

I can hire someone to clean my house or give me a massage. I can hire a doctor to treat and injury or illness. I can hire a guy to mow my lawn and trim my trees. For all of these people they receive my money because they are good at what they do, and are spending their time to do it. If a woman CHOOSES(this is the operative word) to sell her time, and is good at sex, why is it the business of the government to stop it?

I agree with the editor, and I think he got his point across nicely. Having been effected by someone who was involved with prostitution, I can say that there is no other thing that can hurt a family, a wife, or a child more- then to know that someone they loved betrayed their trust.I It completely destroys the person who did it, and. It completely destroys the family. It creates addictions , because those involved think they got away with something when they don’t get caught. It can lead to more serious behaviors and can even turn into sexually related crimes- how do I know? Because I have seen it. You can bash the editor all you want, and you can turn around and absh me, but that doesn’t change the fact that wrong is wrong.There is a reason why people want their names left secret- there is a reason why people do it in secret- it is morally wrong and completely disgusting. It causes more harm then good to all those effected… including those who were the ones who were originally involved.

I think that they should prosecute the johns. Anyone who would hire a prostitute is a low-life — low-life on the level with the Taliban and people who are doing ‘honor killings’. Send them off to jail. They may be pillars of the business community in Kennebunkport but it will be hard to run a business from a jail cell.

To the people on this forum who think that legalizing prostitution and regulating it would prevent the coercion and sex slavery are naive. It doesn’t work in Europe. Why would it work in a world with scarce government resources? I’ll make you an offer, if we legalize prostitution and we still have sex slavery, can I sell you into slavery? Why should the risk be only with desperate women in poor countries who are looking for a way out of poverty by getting a job in the West?

To Thank You: “Having been effected by someone who was involved with prostitution, I can say that there is no other thing that can hurt a family, a wife, or a child more- then to know that someone they loved betrayed their trust.I It completely destroys the person who did it, and. It completely destroys the family.”
The point you are making is true, but I know of no family personally that has had their family fall apart due to prostitution. But I have seen many families break up due to affairs. When a partner cheats with either a co-worker or neighbor, the results are the same. The truth is a man who cheats is not a good husband to begin with and the wife is fortunate when she finds out and dumps the loser. Marriages break up because of infidelity, not because of prostitution. Don’t blame the prostitute for a man being a lying pig. Also, prostitution does not lead to addiction. Drugs can and is a different vice.
As to sex slavery? This is the realm of countries where children are bought and sold to work in sweat shops 18 hours a day. By legalizing ‘pay to play’ one can foresee the removal of the ‘pimp’ who has a controlling interest in his prostitute. A form of bondage that remains as long as the act is illegal. The pimps is the one who bails out his ‘ho’. She would not need him if it was legal.
Keep in mind, in many homes the married woman is treated as a slave by a ruthless husband. Assualt, threats and in some cases the woman has no where else to turn, Men have always and cruelly used women for their own selfishness. This apart from prostitution. Legalizing ‘pay to play’ would empower woman only….it does nothing for men, except take power from them.
Women have fought men in power for the right to be in control of their own bodies (abortion). This has proved to pass constitutional muster. It is no stretch of the common sense to extend this control of their bodies to themselves in a sexual manner.
To Tekakaromatagi: “can I sell you into slavery?” Is that what you would like? My sisters and my friends would kick the living sh*t out of you just for saying that. A woman who practices freely in the sex trade is not a slave. I also know that myself and all my guy friends would (and have) stood up to bullies when we see one mis-treating a lady.

When people go to jail for prostitution or drug possession, in effect they becomes slaves for the state. Forced to work in prison factories for 18 cents an hour. Who thinks turning people into slaves is a good thing? Now, the prison-industrial complex is booming with business. More slaves arriving everyday on even more trivial charges where there are NO VICTIMS. The judges gain by accepting donations from the private prison congtractors and in many cases own shares of the prisons they send the accused to.

BY far, this is the biggest disgrace this country faces. Prostitution actually provides for some good but lonely man their only means of compassionate human connection. Prostitutes are, more than not, angels of mercy.

This argument as to legality has been played out. The ones for legalization make logical true proofs,,,,the other side can’t do better than name calling.

Tom,
With all respect, this has to be one of the most ridiculous arguments I’ve heard. To say that people arguing against legalized prostitution are only name-calling is simply wrong. And to call prostitutes angels of mercy is a statement that is breathtaking in its audacity. You and I can find common ground in the way the justice system deals with prostitutes. I would much rather punish johns and put prostitutes in some sort of rehabilitation program than in prison. But prostitution is at its core degrading and dehumanizing. If you pay for sex, you are not getting compassionate human connection. You’re getting a sperm depository. Society is suffering generally from a steady loss of civility and humanity. To pay for sex is to dehumanize and objectify the person from whom you are buying the service. The parties don’t care about real human interaction. For both of them, it is a degrading experience that robs them of self-worth. Hence, it is immoral. You want compassionate human connection? Visit your local church or charity. There are volunteers there and true believers who treat people with love. You simply can’t have compassion without love. That is illogical.
Also, your notions about sex slavery are demonstrably wrong. I would refer you to the State Department’s annual report on human trafficking. It’s taking place right here in the United States, and much of it is in the sex trade. The other comments about infidelity and bad marriages are irrelevant. Of course those things happen and are tragic. They having nothing to do with this argument.
I’m tired of hearing that prostitution is a victimless crime. It strews victims literally all over the place. Even the willing prostitute is a victim, offering her virtue for a price.

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Welcome to my perspectives on the news

Jay Evensen is the Associate Editor of the Deseret News editorial page. He has 30 years of journalism experience covering politics and a variety of other assignments at news organizations ranging from United Press International in New York City to the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Deseret News.